Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) has been under the gun for several quarters now as it lost market share to larger competitor Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY). Even the holiday shopping month of December was not kind to Circuit City, which stated that its same-store sales fell 11% [subscription required] during last month across its entire company, with a 12% drop in U.S. same-store sales. That is one huge ouch.

I am amazed that Circuit City has not done anything in at least the last two quarters beyond the "transformational work" CEO Phil Schoonover keeps mumbling about every time the microphone appears in front of him.

Somehow, he has been able to keep his job as things has gone from bad to worse to abysmal in the company he leads. 2008, if sanity returns, will see him jettisoned from Circuit City in favor of someone who knows what he or she is doing.

Circuit City's December sales decreased 8.9% to $1.92 billion. At the same time, international same-store sales went up to the tune of 6.5%. Circuit City has affirmed that it will have a "modest" loss in the Q4 period based on losses from its U.S. operations. Those U.S. operations just can't jump from the funk they are in, and in 2008 I don't see anything changing except the name on the corner office.

Circuit City shares are down to $3.95, or 6.18% in early trading.

Welcome to the 38th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week, I suggested a plan of action to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) for the marketing event that should rule all others: Black Friday. While Wal-Mart was busy this year threatening websites and online entities with lawsuits in order to plug leaks, the retailer could have used some innovation in its marketing message and actually driven a whole wave of curious buyers to its front doors.

Wal-Mart needs to be more innovate and far more proactive. Business as usual, especially during the busy holiday shopping season, should be an action of the past.

Today, I'll tear down some sections of Wal-Mart's Black Friday specials and we'll see how competitive it is with the other big retailers in town. I'll specifically look at consumer electronics retailers Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) (since electronics is the hot category this shopping season), and discount retailer Target as well.

Yesterday, the guesses were lined up about this past Monday's online traffic and sales figures. Well, the traffic figures are official now, and online traffic on Cyber Monday jumped 26% over last year's levels. If consumer spending is slowing down this winter due to energy prices and credit crunches, it sure did not show this past Monday.

Hitwise, an internet traffic reporting firm, released initial figures that showed Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) rise to the top of the most-visited retail website list on Monday. It's interesting to note that Hitwise also stated that this was the third annual Cyber Monday in a row where growth was seen. Amid talk of slower holiday retail sales this year, could it be that customers are moving those purchases from the early morning hours of Black Friday to the comfortable office mouse clicking environment of the following Monday?

Hitwise recorded a 26% increase to the Hitwise 100 Retail Index this year (the top 100 retail websites) compared to November 27, 2006 levels. The largest growth areas this year on Cyber Monday were the electronics and video games categories.

Vasquez apparently saw a tremendous amount of shopping online for holiday goodies, which is surprising since research I've performed before shows most customers shop for decoration items in person instead of on the web. Regardless, Vasquez's words sounded upbeat and I agree with him that www.walmart.com will probably see a pretty decent holiday shopping season this year. Heck, it already started the madness last week.

But then, Vasquez is predicting a rise of 40% to 60% this year for Walmart.com sales compared to last year. That level sounds too much like projective cheerleading than reality since customers will most likely tighten those spending belts more than in a long time -- starting now. If Vasquez is correct, a rise of that level would indeed be a coup if those numbers became actualized after December.